Time Management: 4 Tips for Musicians

Jun 20, 2017

When it comes to learning to play a musical instrument, there are all kinds of new skills to master. Many of these skills even vary from instrument to instrument: learning how to properly purse your lips for a brass instrument won’t help someone playing the violin. But there is one all important skill that is common to all instruments, and every musician must learn to master before they can master their art: time management.

Arguably the most important skill to learn as a musician, or even in life, is how to properly manage your time. Yet, despite its importance, it’s no secret that quite a lot of musicians struggle to find the time for their music. If you’re like most people living in today’s bustling and busy world, you probably get bogged down with all of life’s little distractions and responsibilities. Learning to take deliberate actions, as well as looking for, and making extra time for yourself and your music is one of the greatest life skills music can teach.

So this week, let’s take a look at 4 tips to help you manage your time and get the most out of your practice!

Plan Ahead

The first step in any journey is to figure out where you want to go from here. And your musical journey is no different. You’ll need to start out with some goals to work towards. When planning out your goals, it’s great to have a big “End Goal” that you want to eventually reach (recording artist, for example), but what’s even more important than the end of your quest is the path to it. For that reason, you need to set smaller, stepping-stone goals to reach on your way to your ultimate goal. Set smaller milestones for your practice sessions that you can consistently reach, driving your progress.

While goals are an essential part of improving your skills, in order to really get the best results, you need to add in that all important skill, time management. Let’s say you’ve planned out 5 or 6 attainable goals you want to meet this week. Some people might be tempted to write these down in a sort of “to-do list.” While this is much better than not writing them down at all, a better tactic is to write them down on your calendar. A to-do list is great in that you make your goals concrete by writing them down, but without a time element, you simply wait for the “right” time to do the work, meaning you might not actually accomplish anything if that “right” time never comes.

On the other hand, if you create a schedule for your goals, spaced out throughout the week, you take complete control of your time, organizing other responsibilities and activities around your musical goals.

Try Setting “Micro” Goals

If you’re just getting started, or your life is especially hectic, and the idea of scheduling significant blocks of time for music is difficult, consider micro goals. The idea here is pretty simple, for example, let’s imagine that your goal is simply to find the time to practice more often. Your first micro goal should be to practice for just one minute a day. That’s right, only one minute, every day. If you can’t find a single solitary minute to practice your art every day, you might have bigger things to worry about.

The idea is that if you’re able to find a minute to practice, you’ll probably end up playing for longer than that single minute. You might play for five minutes. Great! You beat your goal by 5 times! Maybe you end up sitting down for a whole half hour. Even better! Maybe you only actually get that single, solitary minute. That’s okay too! 60 seconds is still a lot more than nothing at all.

Micro goals can help kick start you into a more significant routine, can reignite the fire of music in a busy life, and can be just the nudge you might need to get back into the groove of things!

Find Your “Why”

Why are you trying to find more time for your music? What are you working towards and why? What kind of musician do you want to be? Why, why, why?

If you can boil away everything else, and get to the very heart of why you want to play music, you will discover what drives and motivates your love of music, and find your “why.” Once you know why you’re doing something, making the time for it can become much, much easier. Keep that reason in your mind, and stay motivated.

Write down your “why” in big, bold letters and hang it somewhere you’ll see it every day. Try the bathroom mirror. Holding on to your “why” will keep you working towards your goals, and help you create the time you need to reach them.

Learn to Say “No!”

You want more time for the things you want to do, but sometimes that means saying no to other things. One of the hardest aspects of time management is learning to say no to the things that aren’t important. Do your friends want to go out practically every night? Say no once in a while. Got an invite to an event from some old flame you haven’t spoken to in years? Say no! Co-workers want to go out for a drink after a long shift? It’s okay to let them go without you.

Finding a balance in life isn’t always easy, but it is incredibly important. Making time for work, friends, and family matters, but not to the point that you start sacrificing all your personal time. Setting time aside for yourself and the things that you love and want to do is just as important as sharing your time with others, if not more so.

So don’t be afraid to say no once in a while. Your time is yours, and you should spend it the way you want to.

Time management is a difficult skill to master. In fact, in today’s fast and furious world it may as well be considered a superpower. Which makes it all the more important a skill to learn, especially for the budding musician.